Christ the King
Psalm 93 or
132:1-13
John 18:33-37
Pilate
entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, "Are you
the King of the Jews?" Jesus answered, "Do you ask this on your own,
or did others tell you about me?" Pilate replied, "I am not a Jew, am
I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have
you done?" Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not from this world. If my
kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from
being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here."
Pilate asked him, "So you are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say
that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to
testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my
voice."
Almighty and
everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in your well-beloved
Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of
the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under
his most gracious rule; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one
God, now and for ever. Amen.
“My kingdom is not from this
world…my kingdom is not from here.”
So Jesus replies to Pilate’s bold question of him, “Are you the king of
the Jews?” In spite of Jesus’s
firm testimony that he was no earthly king, Pilate had a placard, reading “The
King of the Jews,” nailed to the cross above Christ’s head.
Today is the last Sunday in
Pentecost; Advent begins next Sunday. This day is also known as “Christ the
King” Sunday. From today’s gospel lesson, where Jesus is being interrogated by
Pontius Pilate, we know we are nearing the end of his earthly story. In the
church year, we are about to begin that story all over again, with the events
in Bethlehem. Jesus’s words to Pilate challenge us to ponder exactly what kind
of kingdom Jesus claims as his own. What kind of king is Jesus Christ?
Clearly there have been earthly
kings, Jesus’s ancestor David included, who have abused their power and
privilege. David was a great king and a (mostly) faithful servant of God—except
for that ruinous incident with Bathsheba and her husband, David would have a
clean record. The world, as it is,
being full of temptations, it is probably easier for us to think of the names
of powerful kings who have indulged in bad behavior than to list the names of
good kings. Henry the 8th comes to mind immediately, what with his
six wives and notoriously bad temper.
It’s a shame we don’t hear more
about King Alfred, who ruled in Britain from 871 until 899 and is the only
English king to have been given the appellation “Great.” In its commemoration
of Alfred on October 26th, our Episcopal book Lesser Feasts and Fasts
says, “Alfred, alone of all English rulers, has been called ‘the Great’ because
of his courage and Christian virtues.” As warrior king, Alfred, by establishing
fortified defenses throughout the land and organizing a well-trained army, united
the disparate groups of Anglo-Saxon people and led them to the defeat of the
invading Danes. To expand the defenses of his island kingdom, he had a fleet of
60-oar longships constructed, and this small navy was critical in continuing to
repel the Danish invaders. He oversaw the restoration and rebuilding of London,
which had fallen into enemy hands. With peace and prosperity well in hand,
Alfred was the first English king to codify a book of law, based on biblical
law and guaranteeing the rights of the common people.
But those are not all of Alfred’s
accomplishments. Believing that the people needed to be educated in their own
language, Alfred had important religious and historical classics translated
into English. In fact, he translated some of these documents himself, including
Pope Gregory the Great’s handbook of pastoral care as well as the first fifty
psalms. Alfred’s desire to spread the word of the Lord among his people was as
great as his own desire to live and lead by that Word. It is said that King Alfred
the Great accomplished all of these things by modeling his life on the life of
Christ. He believed his duty as king was to serve as a Christ-like example to
his people, to care for them as a pastor cares for his flock.
When Jesus says to Pilate, “My
kingdom is not from this world,” he doesn’t tell us what that kingdom of
his will be like. Power-brokers like Pilate and ruthless kings like Herod can’t
begin to imagine the kind of kingdom Jesus speaks of. Like King Alfred the Great, the only thing we contemporary
Christians know for sure about a kingdom ruled by Jesus Christ is how his
subjects are to be treated. Following the teachings of his Lord and Saviour, King
Alfred loved his people, protected them as a shepherd protects his sheep, and
sought to do what was best for them, as a father does for his children. A good
king is a pastor, a father, and a shepherd.
There is an old hymn, based on the
23rd psalm, that beautifully expresses all of these things about
Christ the King. It goes like
this: “The King of love my
shepherd is, whose goodness faileth never. I nothing lack if I am his and he is
mine forever. Perverse and foolish oft I strayed, but yet in love he sought me,
and on his shoulder gently laid, and home, rejoicing brought me. And so through
all the length of days, thy goodness faileth never; Good Shepherd may I sing
thy praise within thy house forever.”
Amen.
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